


Rainy Day Sadness

by Zig_Zag_F1



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Fluffy, Happy Ending, Home, Longing, M/M, Mild Language, No Sex, Pining, Rain, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, established relationship of some kind, tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 10:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20722541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zig_Zag_F1/pseuds/Zig_Zag_F1
Summary: The only sound was the rain outside, and here and there a little thunder mingled in with the sound of water, and now and again there were brief, sudden flashes of lightening. Max sighed, went into his bedroom, and fell on the bed. After a second, he sat up again and removed his wet hoodie and jeans, taking his phone out of his pants pocket and tossing it on the bed before falling back onto the mattress next to it. With a sigh he turned it on and waited as it loaded, but when the home screen finally appeared, there were no new messages.





	Rainy Day Sadness

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS ALL FICTIONAL AND DON'T COPY IT OR POST IT ANYWHERE SO IT STAYS IN THE DEEP DARK RECESSES OF THIS SITE. THANKS.
> 
> Not set in any particular time, perhaps on an off-race weekend?

It was still raining when the plane touched down in Monaco. Max was awake by then, staring out the window, watching the drops roll down the pane and disappear off the edge of the glass. Outside the clouds were gray and heavy and it was barely dawn. From the window, the normally clear view was blurry, lights bouncing off of water and refracting in little blinking flashes. He shifted in his seat and gathered up his few belongings, just the headphones and his laptop really, and put them into his carry-on bag. The laptop had gone unused the whole trip anyway; he'd been sleeping on and off through the flight and when he wasn't, he found it difficult to focus on anything. Maybe it was the bleak weather, but he couldn't stop rethinking the same thoughts and puzzling at them as though by repeatedly replaying them they would either make sense or go away. 

He disembarked and there was a car waiting to take him home, they promised to send his luggage along later, so he climbed into the back and put his head against the seat, trying to bring sleep back to his buzzing brain, but it didn't seem to work. Closing his eyes anyway, he wrapped his arms around the backpack on his lap and laid his head on top of it like a pillow, watching the rainy scenery go by as the car took him through the streets to his apartment. He felt no more tired when he arrived than he had when the plane landed, and he buzzed himself into the lobby quickly to avoid the rain, backpack still clutched to his chest as he went. In the elevator, he shook himself off and watched the floors count upward, forcing his brain to stay empty. A puddle formed under his tennis shoes and he kicked at it. Then the elevator dinged and he walked off down the hall to his door, feeling a sigh of relief as he let himself inside and dropped his damp backpack on the kitchen counter. 

It was very quiet.

The only sound was the rain outside, and here and there a little thunder mingled in with the sound of water, and now and again there were brief, sudden flashes of lightening. Max sighed, went into his bedroom, and fell on the bed. After a second, he sat up again and removed his wet hoodie and jeans, taking his phone out of his pants pocket and tossing it on the bed before falling back onto the mattress next to it. With a sigh he turned it on and waited as it loaded, but when the home screen finally appeared, there were no new messages. 

Max shoved the phone onto the nightstand and turned away from it, pulling the covers over himself and trying to convince his mind that he was sleepy again. But it didn't work. 

He kept remembering back several weeks ago , when Daniel had come up to his room and they had made out for hours, among other things, and afterwards Daniel had stayed the night, his uncoordinated limbs splayed out and taking up half the bed. Max hadn't minded though, even though he gave Dan a bad time about it. He admitted to himself, however, that he liked being next to Daniel, liked having Dan's arms thrown over him, liked being able to lean his head on Dan's shoulder. 

The next morning, Dan had said, "I'll see you again soon. Promise." 

But he hadn't. They'd exchanged texts, quite a few, if Max was honest, and Daniel had tried to video chat with him a few times, but Max had always declined it because he didn't really know how to act normal on video and he felt too nervous to try it out. He'd found other excuses to give Daniel, of course, but that was the truth of the matter.

And then there was the time before last, where they'd gone out to a club and gotten pretty drunk. Afterwards they found themselves stumbling back to Dan's room and being silly and weird and kissing in between until finally they collapsed on the bed together and passed out. Max had enjoyed that night of silliness, with no sex, but lots of goofiness and fun complete with an almost coupl-y bedtime routine. 

He smiled in spite of himself every time he remembered the way Dan predicted every moment of his nightly routine, already knowing Max too well. But then his gaze shifted back to his phone and he felt down again. It had only been a day since he'd heard from Dan, and the whole not-being-teammates-anymore thing always had complicated their...whatever it was...but what he really wanted was to actually see Dan and spend time with him again. It didn't even matter what they did, honestly. He just had to face the fact that he missed Dan a lot.

Reaching for his phone, he saw that he did have a text now, and it was from Dan himself. But when he opened it, all it said was "_Hey."_

_Hey, _Max typed back simply, a bit annoyed.

_Did you make it home safe? _

Max warmed a little at that. He didn't know why, but he did like it when Dan asked about things like that. _Yeah. Are you home yet?_

But Dan didn't reply right away.

Max rolled over again and stared out the window, fixating blankly on the blurry picture of the world outside for what seemed like hours. But he still wasn't tired, and he felt gross from the trip, so eventually he sat up and stripped, picking up the clothes from the floor and putting them in his laundry hamper. He wandered to his chest of drawers and tossed items of random clothing on the bed before gathering them up and taking them with him into the bathroom. As he put them down, he heard his phone buzz, so he went and looked at it. 

_Yeah, just getting here now._

So Dan was here, back in Monaco. Max didn't know how he felt about that. He figured yes, Dan just got in, but surely he would suggest hanging out before long. So he texted: _Got any plans?_

That would give him an obvious hint and also a great segue into asking if Max wanted to come over or something. Or inviting himself over. Either one was fine with Max.

But Daniel simply responded: _Nah, I just want to sleep. I'm fuckin tired mate._

Max didn't bother answering. He was hurt, even though he knew that wasn't fair, and he was a bit frustrated with Dan for not reading his mind and asking him to come over or something. Max knew he was tired too, but he just couldn't relax, and now any chance of that happening seemed to evaporate with the realization that he didn't know if he'd see Dan anytime soon. Which, he felt, was particularly painful since now Dan was not even that far away.

Max turned on the shower and got in, letting the warm water ease his tense muscles as much as possible. He just stood there, soaking in the warmth after the damp outdoors, for a long time. Slowly he washed his hair and rinsed his body, but he didn't get out. Instead, he sat down on the floor of the tub and let the water cascade over him. Eyes closed, he let it course over his face and tried to wash away all the thoughts of Daniel. Probably he was just overthinking things due to lack of sleep anyway. It had been a long time since he had slept a full night. That was why, he told himself. It was just the delusions of a sleep-deprived mind. He wasn't actually missing Daniel this much. After all, they'd never really talked about what they were. It just was. And he was okay with that, really he was, but he did sometimes wish he knew for certain that it would keep happening and that it wouldn't just one day stop. What if Daniel did just suddenly get bored one day? Would Max even know it? Or would they just drift apart slowly and wake up one day and realize that they hadn't talked in months?

Max brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, putting his head down to avoid getting water in his eyes. He didn't want to think about this anymore. He blinked the drops from his eyelids and stood up again, turning off the warm water and stepping onto the rug. He grabbed a towel and tousle-dried his hair, not bothering to make it neat. He wasn't going anywhere today. 

Then he wrapped the towel around his waist and started looking in the drawer for a washcloth. A buzzing sound startled him, and he turned around quickly to see his phone vibrating on the nightstand. He quickly walked over to it and looked at it. It was Daniel.

Breathing more quickly than he would have liked, and certainly not as a result of the jog over, Max grabbed for the phone, dropped it on the floor, picked it up, and answered it. 

"Hello."

Daniel's voice came through with quite a bit of background noise. "Hey Max, what's up?"

"Uhhhh..." Max began, absently running his fingers through his wet hair as he tried to figure out an answer. "Um. I miss you." That was not the answer.

Daniel was laughing, and Max felt like hanging up on him. "Well, if you miss me so much, why don't you answer your phone? I've been standing out here in the rain trying to get you to buzz me in for a good bit! I tried to call you twice already!"

Heart pounding, Max raced into the kitchen and put in the code to open the door to the lobby below. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, words coming out too quickly. "It's open, it's open."

The background noise on the phone call suddenly stopped and only Dan's voice came through. "Thanks mate. See you in a moment."

Max ran back into the bathroom and tried to fix his hair a little more neatly than the first time. Then he looked down at the towel and went back into the bedroom to try and find something else to wear. But while he was rifling through his drawers, he heard the tap on the door. 

_Oh well_, he thought. _It's not like Daniel hasn't seem me with less than this on._

He shoved all the clothing back into the drawer, shut it, and went to the kitchen to open the door, heart jumping a little the whole way. 

Dan was soaking wet, but his smile was as big as ever, and when he saw Max in the towel, he just laughed. "I'm sorry mate. Guess that's why you didn't answer your phone."

"Yeah," Max said, suddenly feeling awkward for no reason. "I wasn't expecting you."

Now Dan looked awkward. "I was hoping it would be a surprise. Isl it...I mean...is that okay?"

Max looked at him, standing in the kitchen, dripping wet, and he just laughed. He couldn't find the words to say that yes, it was, it was more than okay, it was great, it was amazing, yeah, of course...

"I'm glad you're here," he said finally. "I...didn't know when I'd see you again."

Daniel smiled, a less big and goofy one and more just a nice one this time. He reached out and grabbed Max's wrist and pulled him into a hug. 

His skin was warm and the water dripping from his hair was cold, but Max didn't mind. He put his arms around Daniel's waist and leaned his head onto his shoulder, breathing in and out more normally than he had since arriving home.

Daniel squeezed his shoulders and released him. "I'm soaking wet, mate. Do you have another one of those?" He tagged the edge of the towel around Max's waist and the knot holding it up came loose, forcing Max to catch it to keep it up. They both laughed, Daniel making another effort to grab for the towel as he chased Max into the bedroom. 

Max threw a pair of shorts and a shirt at him and Daniel stripped to his boxers, putting on a silly, half-teasing show that Max found more adorable than sexy, although he did notice that too. Max went back into the bathroom and found the clothes he had put there for himself as well and put them on, bringing the towel back out with him and lobbing it at Daniel's head. Daniel caught it at the last second and mock glared at him while he dried his wet hair. Then he threw the towel back at Max and Max ducked, avoiding it, and sprang at Daniel instead, playfully pulling his arm behind his back and dragging him down to the bed. 

Daniel complied willingly, laughing as he fell backwards onto the pillow, and when Max looked down at him, Daniel snagged a kiss. Max let go and kissed him back, both of them slumping onto Max's unmade bed.

After a few moments of lazy, meandering kisses, Daniel leaned back onto the pillow. "I'm so tired, Max."

Max suddenly felt the tiredness that had left him abruptly earlier coming back, and he murmured an agreement. Daniel reached up and gently pulled Max by his hair until his head lay on Dan's chest, and then he left his hand there, playing with Max's blonde hair absentmindedly. 

Max heard the rain picking up even more, beating against the window, but he didn't open his eyes. _Go ahead and rain_, he thought as he started to drift into sleep. _Daniel's here so I'm not going out anyway._

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by Lana del Ray's Summertime Sadness, in case anyone cares.
> 
> If you're curious, I do take prompts, but because I'm picky and not always inspired, I don't guarantee I'll fulfill them. But feel free to ask, the worst I can say is no.  
Thank you fellow terrible humans.


End file.
